The closed-door meet is happening at a time when the State government is fiercely at odds with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on a slew of issues
The closed-door meet is happening at a time when the State government is fiercely at odds with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on a slew of issues
The three-day Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leadership meeting that gets underway at the AKG Centre, the party’s State headquarters, here on Friday appears to be anything but routine.
The political context of the closed-door conclave is exceptional by most counts.
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Governor-government spat
The government is fiercely at odds with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.
The slew of governor-government disputes ranges from vice chancellor appointments, the perceived delay in approving the bills passed by the Assembly, and Mr. Khan’s recent charge that the Chief Minister Office (CMO) was inextricably involved in the UAE gold smuggling scandal that dogged the previous LDF administration.
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Complaint to President
Mr. Khan’s latest foray against the government to emerge in the public domain was reportedly a purported letter to the President of India accusing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of keeping the Raj Bhavan in the dark about his European tour and not nominating a cabinet colleague to helm the government in his absence.
A CPI(M) insider said the party still needed to determine whether Mr. Khan had dashed off a suo motto letter to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan blaming Mr. Vijayan or if the communique was a routine reply to a central government query.
Gubernatorial interference
The CPI(M) also seemed discomfited by what it viewed as Mr. Khan’s “interference” in everyday issues and “recurrent trespasses” on the jurisdictional autonomy of the government.
For one, the party has not taken kindly to Mr. Khan’s “unilateral decision” to appoint Dr. Ciza Thomas as the vice chancellor of the A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) after “curtly rejecting” the government’s nominees.
On Friday, pro-CPI(M) university employees and student organisations protested against Ms. Thomas when she arrived at the university centre to assume office. Ms. Thomas later told television journalists that she had anticipated the protest.
Earlier, Mr. Khan had ordered the State Police Chief to accord sufficient protection to varsity officials given the fraught academic situation.
Grievances
The CPI(M) was also reportedly peeved that the Raj Bhavan had communicated directly to agitating Endosulphan victims before the government’s task force could open negotiations with the protestors.
The party felt Mr. Khan was running a one-person recriminatory campaign against the Left government out of political spite. Its litany of grievances against Mr. Khan seemed long. They include promoting the RSS agenda to control higher learning centres and repeated attempts to denigrate the elected political executive.
Withdrawal of pleasure
Mr. Khan’s withdrawal of pleasure vis-a-vis the continuation of Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal in the cabinet is reportedly on the meeting’s agenda.
The CPI(M) viewed the unsettled question of whether a minister could continue in office after the governor “withdrew pleasure” as a legal sword of Damocles hanging over the government.
The prospect of leaving the question constitutionally unresolved might not augur well for the administration. The conference might decide to prepare the ground for a potentially consequential political and legal fight over the limits of gubernatorial power.
Also read: Limits of pleasure: On Kerala Governor-government spat
Retirement age row
The provenance and motive of the much-criticised order of Finance Department enhancing the retirement age of employees of State-run varsities sans consultation in the CPI(M) could come up for debate.
Party leaders might question CPI(M) State secretary M. V. Govindan’s claim the Finance Department had kept the party in the dark about the now-revoked decision. His statement on Thursday had triggered speculation that Mr. Balagopal had found himself isolated in the party on the issue.
Ahead of the leadership meeting, news reports emerged that Mr. Govindan, as Local Self Government Institutions minister in April, was party to the cabinet discussion on whether or not to enhance the retirement age, and he could not claim ignorance when the controversial order became a political lightning rod for the party.
By some accounts, the CPI(M) meeting might reconsider raising the retirement age of government employees in a phased manner to ease the burden on the State treasury caused by outsized pension and gratuity payments. Notably, the government has not annulled the order. It has merely put it on hold.
TN government and trade union policy
Politically, the CPI(M) has found a common cause with the Tamil Nadu government, which has sought the withdrawal of the State’s governor over comparable disputes. The CPI(M) is also drumming up public support against Mr. Khan’s “infringes on federalism” as a precursor to the party’s siege of the Raj Bhavan on November 15.
The leadership meet might also formulate a new trade union policy, given Kerala’s bid to transform the State into a global investment destination and knowledge economy.
